Consumers looking to repurpose their diamonds are understandably surprised when jewelers present the reality.

We recently had a client, let’s call her Debbie, come to us with a 1.00 carat diamond and speechless-jewelerseveral small diamonds, all of which totaled approximately 2.00 carats. She wanted a single 2.00 carat diamond for her engagement ring, and asked to trade her combined 2.00 of smaller diamonds for the one larger stone.

She assumed that she would probably have to pay a little bit more for the ring. What she didn’t realize was how much the difference would be.

Why the disparity? Diamonds are sold by carat weight and the larger the diamond, the more rare the stone is.

  • 2 diamonds weighing a combined 1.00 carat of a given quality cost much less than one single diamond weighing 1.00 carat.
  • 1.00 carat is equal to 5.00 grams, so one carat is 1/5 of a gram. Diamonds are the single most expensive thing sold by weight.

In Debbie’s case, the 1.00 carat round brilliant cut diamond, two .25 carat diamonds and one 0.50 carat diamond totaled 2.00 carats. Here’s how the difference in cost measures up:

  • The average wholesale cost to buy these diamonds is $6600.00.
  • The average wholesale cost to buy one 2.00 carat diamond is $17.900.00.

That’s almost three times the wholesale cost because the rarity of larger diamonds drives the price to a very high level.

At Suncoast Gems we always give our clients the best possible pricing and try to work within their budget. However, the price of diamonds is determined by the market and no one controls the market. If you are interested in trading up to a larger diamond, give us a call and we will be happy to take a look and see what we can do to help.